Super Bowl-winning WR dubbed Bills’ biggest ‘bust’ candidate in 2024 NFL season

Bleacher Report has circled veteran wideout Marquez Valdes-Scantling as the Buffalo Bills' biggest bust candidate in the 2024 NFL season.

Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling (11) celebrates a touchdown catch against the San Francisco 49ers in the second half in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports / Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

The Buffalo Bills revamped their receiving corps in the 2024 NFL offseason, moving on from perennial Pro Bowler Stefon Diggs and complementary option Gabriel Davis while supplementing their departures with unproven, but high-upside free agents and young contributors. Rookie Keon Coleman, former second-round pick Curtis Samuel, veteran journeyman Mack Hollins, and recent Super Bowl winner Marquez Valdes-Scantling were brought into One Bills Drive as part of the overhaul, with these players projecting to spearhead Buffalo’s aerial production alongside Khalil Shakir and second-year tight end Dalton Kincaid.

Any of the team’s recent acquisitions could reasonably be circled as a “breakout” candidate given the number of available targets in the Bills’ receiving corps, but Bleacher Report isn’t necessarily buying into this idea with regard to one particular wideout. In a recent article predicting every NFL team’s “biggest bust” of the 2024 season, analyst David Kenyon predicted that Valdes-Scantling will disappoint in the Buffalo blue and red this fall.

“Although the offense needs a top receiver to replace Stefon Diggs, there's no great answer on the roster—unless you believe that much in rookie Keon Coleman,” Kenyon wrote. “As a result, the Bills signed Marques Valdes-Scantling to buoy its by-committee approach. The veteran wideout is limited as a route-runner and can be a drop-plagued target, though.”

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Valdes-Scantling is an interesting choice to identify as a “bust” candidate, as there are likely very few people who are anticipating anything all that significant from the veteran. He projects as the team’s, at best, No. 4 wideout behind Coleman, Shakir, and Samuel, and he’ll have to compete for that role with Hollins throughout camp. He figures to be an occasional boundary option who can provide a splash once or twice a week, but he’ll be far from an every-down contributor.

If the Bills’ biggest bust is a 29-year-old receiver they signed off the street in mid-May, that wouldn’t be the end of the world.

As Kenyon alludes to in his article, Buffalo doesn’t have a bona fide primary wideout after the departure of Diggs; the team, thus, figures to take a more egalitarian approach to aerial production, spreading the ball out among Kincaid, Shakir, Coleman, Samuel, and (likely) Valdes-Scantling. The receiver is coming off back-to-back Super Bowl-winning seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, catching 63 passes for 1,002 yards throughout his stint. He’s fresh off a 2023 campaign in which he reeled in 21 catches for 315 yards—this is likely the type of impact Buffalo is expecting from him in the fall, and if he can meet the (admittedly modest) expectation, it’d be unfair to describe him as a bust.

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